2: a group of usu. related individuals who live together under common household authority and esp. who have reciprocal duties to each other

◇ The interpretation of the word family in a law context depends upon the area of the law concerned (as contract or zoning law), the purpose of the document (as a statute or contract) in which it is used, and the facts of the case. Often for zoning purposes, the occupants of a group home are considered a family if the organization is like that of a family or if the home is going to be a permanent rather than a transitional residence for the occupants.

A group of people related to one another by blood and marriage, often sharing a common ancestor; the unit consisting of parents and children; for insurance purposes, the people who live with and are dependent on an insured person.

n. A group of individuals who share ties of blood, marriage, or adoption; a group residing together and consisting of parents, children, and other relatives by blood or marriage; a group of individuals residing together who have consented to an arrangement similar to ties of blood or marriage.

Webster's New World Law Dictionary.
Susan Ellis Wild.
2000.

family

n.

1) husband, wife and children.

2) all blood relations.

3) all who live in the same household including servants and relatives, with some person or persons directing this economic and social unit.

Look at other dictionaries:

Family — • In the classical Roman period the familia rarely included the parents or the children. Its English derivative was frequently used in former times to describe all the persons of the domestic circle, parents, children, and servants. Present usage … Catholic encyclopedia

Family 13 — Family 13, also known Ferrar Group ( f 13, von Soden calls the group Ii), is a group of Greek Gospel manuscripts, varying in date from the 11th to the 15th century, which display a distinctive pattern of variant readings especially in placing the … Wikipedia

Family 1 — is a group of the Greek Gospel manuscripts, varying in date from the 12th to the 15th century. The group takes its name from the minuscule codex 1, now in Basel. Family 1 is also kown as the Lake Group , symbolized as f 1. Hermann von Soden calls … Wikipedia

family — (n.) c.1400, servants of a household, from L. familia family servants, domestics; also members of a household, including relatives and servants, from famulus servant, of unknown origin. Ancestral sense is from early 15c.; household sense recorded … Etymology dictionary